Now that we have been in Brisbane just over a year I have been thinking about the differences between Brisbane and Darwin. I loved Darwin, its like nowhere else I have been but its also a great outdoorsy place and we also made some fantastic friends there so it will always hold great memories.

It is hard to have Darwin and Brisbane compete against each other because they are so different. I also would not say one place is better than the other, I did and do love living in each city. However they are very different and unique when you compare them so I thought I would describe some of those difference.

1. The Weather

At the moment at least, the weather in Brisbane is quite different to Darwin. This time of year in Darwin it is the dry season which means lovely warm days and cooler breezier nights which are perfect for exploring the markets and various events which are on. In Brisbane it is the beginning of winter and as I sit here writing this I have various layers of clothing on as well as the air conditioner pumping out warm air!

2. The City

Darwin is a city but its not built up like the traditional city we all know whereas Brisbane is very much like Bristol which is the city I used to work in in the UK. It has buildings which are old and historic and quite beautiful as well as new sky scrapers going up by the day. It does also mean you can get to one end of the city in Darwin quite quickly whereas it can be quite a walk / drive / bus / train ride in Brisbane.

3. The People

People are people but in the Northern Territory there is something like 212,000 people whereas in Brisbane there are over 1.9 million people so there’s quite a difference. I remember the first time we visited Brisbane, the Aussie and I were walking through the city from our hotel to meet our friends for dinner and I said something like “isn’t it fantastic?” and when the Aussie asked what and my answer was “so many people”. I do love that the streets have the hustle and bustle but it also doesn’t feel like it is too much.

4. The Lifestyle

To be honest the lifestyle is about the same, we are out and about enjoying what Brisbane has to offer just like we did in Darwin. We do have the big weather differences but for example I still get up early to go for a walk, I just wear a jumper. We do though live about 40 minutes drive from the nearest beach whereas in Darwin it was about a 2 minute drive for us to get to the beach to go for a walk, have dinner at the beach at sunset etc. However Brisbane is built around the river and so it isn’t too far for us to be near the water and after moving house we now live nearer parklands where we can go for nice walks before and after work so that has all balanced out.

5. The Houses

Brisbane doesn’t seem to be as new as Darwin, there’s not big housing developments going up all over or unit developments and we do have some quite lovely old Queenslander buildings (aka money traps) around which I love. As you drive down any street in either city none or very few of the houses are the same. I have noticed that it seems like people have pulled down the beautiful traditional Queenslander houses and built, lovely looking shiny new homes in between the older style buildings. The old buildings must be hard to maintain but it does make me sad if I see a Queenslander being demolished!

6. The Shopping

Ohhhhh man the shopping here is crazy. There are shopping malls in most suburbs or in easy driving distance and they are massive. The whole of the mall in Darwin would fit into our local mall probably 2 if not 3 times. There are so many shops I have never shopped in because they didn’t have them in Darwin so it is a lot of fun exploring them. There are also a few brands I know from the UK such as Topshop which I am keen to explore. I do find that I stick to the old faithful brands I know well like Kmart and Target but they are good fast fashion when you are exercising / getting fit etc.

I am sure there are a lot more differences but those are the big ones I have noticed in the last year that we have lived here.

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On the 31st May 2018 I have been living in Brisbane for a whole year. The Aussie didn’t arrive until just over a month after me as he had the pleasure of packing our lives up for moving!

I know its cliche, but I honestly don’t know where the last year has gone!

In that time I/we have:

1. moved into our first home and moved again just 2 weeks ago into our lovely lovely new house (cheaper, nicer and bigger, such a good move!);
2. I have lost about 25kg (almost 42kg in total), joined a gym I love, participated in a number of Park Runs, Charity Events and the Gold Run at the Commonwealth Games;
3. Established myself in my new job and passed the one year mark there as well;
4. I have hugged not just one but two koalas at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (aiming for number 3 when my family arrive);
5. Visited beautiful locations including the Gold Coast, Natural Bridge, Tin Can Bay amongst so so many, with a lot more on the list;
6. Embraced my creative side by going to a pottery painting class and a painting class thanks to vouchers purchased from Groupon;
7. The Aussie has been focusing on his business and growing it;
8. Explored Brisbane and discovered some great places that I love to show to people who come and visit us.
9. Spent lots of time with our friends who had already moved from Darwin to Brisbane or moved just after us;
10. Visited Darwin a couple of time which was lovely because we got to see our friends who live in Darwin, had some of them visit us in Brisbane and also visited Bali, the Aussie for the first time and ended up stuck for a few days care of the volcano!

With a hectic year behind us and an already fairly busy one ahead of us, Brisbane is shaping up to be a pretty great city.

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I have found since moving to Australia that people do move around a bit more than I am used to in the UK.

After moving to Australia in August 2013 the Aussie and I lived in Darwin up until June 2017 when we moved to Brisbane. We had decided to move to Brisbane after visiting 18 months or so before that but we had to wait until I had qualified as a Lawyer so I could find a job before we moved.

The job hunting process took a while and was at times frustrating. It was disappointing that for most of the applications I made I received no response even to saying thanks for but no thanks! Then all of a sudden I was offered a job and had to move to Brisbane within two weeks.

I already had flights booked to Brisbane as our friend Naomi and I had planned a long weekend trip to go and hit some recruitment consultants so it worked out perfectly timed to move there.

The Aussie stayed in Darwin for a month after I moved down to Brisbane so he could sort out packing up the house and before I left to start my new job I packed up my things as well as much of the house as I could so that the Aussie still had everything he needed to stay there for the next few weeks.

After flying down to Brisbane I booked a few inspections but before moving we had to decide where we wanted to live, we needed somewhere close to my new office but also central because we wanted somewhere close to public transport so it would be easy for the Aussie to get to a new job. We were actually pre-approved for a house in the area where we wanted to live but the Landlord insisted we see the property before we signed the lease which worked out well because whilst the house was lovely and had great views it wasn’t very accessibility friendly when I inspected it. The same Agent had another house in the same area. I went to a few more inspections both on my own and with our friends and found the lovely little kind of Queenslander house that we now live in, all within 3 days of our arrival! We signed the Lease and the following Saturday I picked up the keys.

We had sold nearly all of our furniture before moving so up next was operation transfer what we were moving by arranging a transporter service and buying the rest of what we needed. I spent a fun morning at Kmart going into the shop with my list, filling the trolly, paying for it, loading the car before doing the same thing another couple of times.

I also spent a lot of time on the Buy, Swap and Sell pages on Facebook and Gumtree and found nearly all of the furniture we needed, then a couple of shops in Ikea and Kmart and we were ready.

Our American friends helped so much as well and also let me stay with them for the first month of my time in Brisbane which was just what I needed in a new city where I had to start a new job, find a new house and just to get settled. Being in a familiar surroundings with our friends was perfect. They also spent a big afternoon at the new house putting together the flat packed Ikea furniture which was fantastic.

The car also came down to Brisbane on a transporter truck separately and arrived two weeks after I did. I used a hire car for the first two weeks as my office was a 25 minute drive from our American friends house and the transport situation was not great from that direction.

After a quick visit back to Darwin where the Aussie and I filled our suitcases with 80kg of luggage (including our Roomba vacuum cleaner!) and got to say a sad farewell to our friends in Darwin it was time for the Aussie to fly back with me.

We had “fun” at the airport as I booked us flights with Tiger Air but seperate tickets so they would not allow us to combine our weight allowance. We had under 80kg of luggage which we had paid for but because we couldn’t combine our luggage we would be over our individual 40kg allowance no matter how we packed everything. Luckily our friend came and picked up the things we couldn’t carry and Naomi flew down a few weeks later for a visit and brought the things we couldn’t bring, with her.

Our belongings arrived a couple of days after the Aussie did and he unpacked the truck ready for us to move in and we were off living our Brisbane life. A little bit of shopping later and our house was perfect.

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I know we say it all the time but really how is it December and almost Christmas!

November was another great month and not just because it is my birthday month! There was travel, music and lots in between.

From left to right:

1 – On the 1st November we went to see Celeste Barber in her #celestechallengeaccepted tour. I had followed Celeste on Instagram and Facebook and saw she was touring so roped in the Aussie and Naomi to go and watch. The show was hilarious, she is such a funny woman and it was nice that none of the humour was unnecessarily crude or rude. We all said we would go and watch her again.

2 – Beautiful Jacaranda trees were out in force this month. There is a tree outside my office at work and all of a sudden it was covered in purple blossom. Shortly after we saw that one of the trees in our garden was also a Jacaranda and it was a gorgeous time!

3 – The first Christmas Tree arrived in our local mall nice and early in the month!

4- After a lovely park run walk, complete with a bit of an actual run, Naomi and I collected the Aussie for breakfast at Goodness Gracious Cafe in Graceville which was so delicious! It was a cafe I had wanted to try since arriving in Brisbane and I was not disappointed.

5 – The Aussie and I had a wander around Manly including a visit to the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. I still can’t sail but do love being around the boats.

6 – 8 – Take That and Danni Minogue! I will post about it separately but I dragged the Aussie along to see Take That in concert who were supported by the gorgeous Danni Minogue. I had wanted to see Take That since the first time they were famous and was not disappointed in any way!

9 – As the Aussie and I were off to Bali and Elaine our lovely American friend was to travel to America around the same time, the Aussie and I hosted a morning tea at our house. We each made some tasty treats and enjoyed a lovely catch up.

10 – Before heading to Bali, the Aussie and I flew back into Darwin and were able to catch up with our friends and the Aussie’s brother. It was so nice seeing everyone after our time away and also to see that Darwin hasn’t changed all that much!

11 – 16 – All these photos were taken in Bali (plus a lot more besides!) where we spent just over a week. We had a nice relaxing time even if the volcano did try and hamper things a touch and got to see lots of Bali. I’m hoping we will make it back there again in the not to distant future.

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I have never felt that I was particularly creative. I dropped art at school as soon as possible but did enjoy studying graphic products or whatever it was called in my last two years of school.

I do love photography though which is quite creative but I always avoided anything where I had to design or make something.

Earlier this year my friend Naomi (who I believe feels the same way about creativity as I do) and I had a go at a polymer clay workshop when we were in Darwin. It took quite a few goes of re-rolling the clay to get anything near what I had envisioned in my mind but I was quite happy with the finished result for my two necklaces. Naomi’s final product was also gorgeous.

After moving to Brisbane I spotted a two hour painting night voucher on Groupon. I don’t know what possessed me to buy the vouchers but I did. I went with our two lovely American friends who also live in Brisbane. We were painting the picture below:

Mine looks like a much zoomed in version of the original painting but we actually have the final result up in the kitchen as I was quite pleased with how it turned out. E & L’s were very lovely. I managed to use all the paint given to us plus whilst everyone else used the amounts given to them at the start!

Feeling, perhaps overly, confident about my artistic prowess I purchased a two hour ceramic class voucher from Groupon (it is becoming a running joke amongst our friends that I am a bit of a Groupon addict, I would argue however I just purchased yoga socks from the site and currently do not partake in yoga) for me and the Aussie. Fortunately for the Aussie, Naomi relocated to Brisbane so we used the voucher and went along for a very fun evening at the Ceramic Studio in Indooroopilly.

We learnt about the pottery process which was really interesting before sitting down to paint. I selected a mug and Naomi selected a vase. We chose a type of paint which has crystals in it. When heated the crystals explode and create an amazing pattern across the pottery.

I really love the final product for my mug. The crystals exploded beautifully and the pattern is so pretty. Naomi’s vase also looks beautiful but she hasn’t seen it yet so I won’t post any pictures.

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I just looked at my blog for the first time in months and saw its been quite a while since I posted on it and a lot has changed since my last post on 10 May 2016.

I am sat writing this post on the balcony of our new home in Brisbane, Queensland.

On 31 May 2017 I flew from Darwin to Brisbane with my lovely friend Naomi with 80kg of luggage between us (most of it, if not all of it mine) so I could start work in my new job on 5 June 2017.

The Aussie stayed in Darwin for another month packing the house up as I had to start my new job in just over 2 weeks and whilst we have been planning the Darwin to Brisbane move for about 6 months prior, we really had nothing ready!

So now I really am not an outback expat but a city dwelling expat and I LOVE it! We live north of the Brisbane River but on the west side of the city, in a large town so we are about 15 minutes from the CBD by train or bus and then about the same distance the other way from the countryside and about an hour and a half from the ocean.

It is really the perfect mixture for me who loves the city and the Aussie who loves sailing and being outdoorsy.

Our lovely American friends have been in Brisbane since May or June 2016 and our friend Naomi is arriving in 14 days to begin her Brisbane journey. My family have flights booked to visit us next July and I am beyond excited about that.

We have had a lot of adventures in the last year and a bit and I really hope that I can get back on track and continue this blog because I really enjoyed it and to share some of them here.